This is Me Trying ⭑ Rafe Cameron

one

Kiara pushes past Pope so she could be the first to hug her. The girl about knocks Cassie over with the embrace. "Holy shit, man. I feel like It's been ten years." Her voice almost cracks.

Cassie felt a knot grow in her throat, smelling the sea salt in Kiara's curly hair, the sunscreen on her arms. She smiles to Pope over her shoulder, then gestures for him to join in.

She felt the love in their touch, the safety in their arms. Her friends, her only friends. She'd almost forgotten the sound of Kiara's voice, and laughed at the significant drop in Pope's.

When they pulled away, everyone turned to see JJ getting Cassie's suitcase from the back of the car, and she felt her heart drop a little.

He was quiet, trying to seem tough, unbothered, but she knew he was hurting.

"I can get it." Cassie says, walking over to her brother and reaching for the single, plastic suitcase she brought with her a year ago.

When you're woken up in the middle of the night by strangers telling you they're taking you somewhere to get help, and you only get half an hour before you leave, you don't really have much time to pack for a years stay.

"Nah, it's alright." JJ shrugs it off, shutting the car door and pulling her suitcase through the dirt.

Cassie swallows a bit, watching JJ as he walks past them, before returning her focus to Kiara and Pope, who wore her same uneasy expression.

She cleared her throat, trying to keep the morale up for as long as she could, trying to savor every minute of it. She points up to the handmade sign that hung on the house. "Wow, you could've bought that from the party store and I wouldn't have even noticed." She spoke sarcastically, eyeing the suspiciously stained white sheet, that was tattered from moth holes.

"Yeah, we thought if we left your name off of it we could reuse it." Pope says, walking beside her as they followed JJ toward the small house.

"Smart thinking." Cassie says. "Very environmentally friendly of you."

"Kie's been rubbing off on us, I guess." Pope jokes.

"You've gotten so tall." Kiara comments, glancing behind her at Cassie. "Like, model tall." She turns back towards JJ and raises her voice. "Guys, stand back to back I wanna see who's taller."

"Fuck no." JJ snorts, as he begins to hall Cassie's suitcase up the stairs to the front porch.

"Just leave it." Cassie waves it off, "I've gotta take it to—"

"You're not staying here?" JJ asks.

Everyone exchanges glances, tense and unsure. Cassie swallows, "Well— I'll probably stay at my grandma's. For a little bit, and when—" she didn't know what to say, didn't know if she'd upset him. "Well, are you staying at Dad's still?"

Kiara glances at Pope, scratching the back of her neck awkwardly.

JJ shrugs. "I don't know. I'm back and fourth. I've been kind of manning the Routledge ship for the past few days."

Cassie nods slowly. "Yeah, yeah. Okay." She puts on a smile. "I'll just— see how everything is, you know?"

JJ and Cassie were half siblings, sharing the same dad. Cassie's mother, Michelle, got pregnant with her six months after JJ's mother, Becky, got pregnant with him. They were born into a messy situation. And it seemed to want to stay that way.